D-Day landings being recreated on Twitter in real time, 70 years on

The 6th of June 1944 was a momentous turning point in the events of the Second World War, and 70 years on, Twitter is being used for a thoroughly modern re-living of D-Day.

The National Archives, which is home to the UK government's official archive dating from the 1086 Domesday Book to the present day, is running the Twitter account @ukwarcabinet.

The re-telling of the D-Day landings through Twitter began with the build-up and is now running through the actual beach landings, following through with the aftermath.

The information of the events is drawn from the contents of the archive and joins a number of activities to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the events.

"We will use war diaries and operations records to tweet details of everything from the parachute regiments landing overnight; then the ships sailing across in the morning; and what the infantry and special services were doing on the ground during 6 June, 1944" said Simon Demissie, Contemporary Records Specialist at The National Archives.

"We will also continue to tweet details from the War Cabinet minutes outlining what the key British decision makers were debating at the time."

The action is unfolding right now on the @ukwarcabinet Twitter account - it makes for fascinating reading.